1 Preston BlairHe started by drawing from the Preston Blair construction lessons. This teaches the logic (the brainy part) of drawing 3 dimensionally.

2 Copy Classic Model Sheets

3 Copy Classic Cartoons (Using knowledge from lessons)Then he moved to draw poses from classic cartoons while trying to APPLY the construction lessons to the poses. Copying classic cartoons teaches you a lot about posing, acting, angles and more. But do it after you start to understand construction.You can see his first sketches (Chicken Hawk) are a bit hesitant or shaky, but then later he gets more confident (Porky Pig). That means it's starting to sink in. Practice makes the concepts from the lessons sink in! It's not enough to understand a theory. You have to apply it over and over again, until you understand it instinctively!

4 Draw lots and lots of studies-not just one timeHe drew lots and lots of studies from the cartoons. the more he does, the more it all sinks in and the better he gets.

5 Draw Toys to Learn Even More about Construction

6 Draw the Same Drawings Again to try to fix ProblemsThis is a very important and useful step. Be your own critic. Analyze your studies. Write down what you think is wrong, THEN DRAW IT AGAIN AND TRY TO FIX THE MISTAKES!You will improve very fast this way.

8 Do Cleanups Of Good Cartoon DrawingsDoing tight cleanups of good drawings also helps all the concepts sink in. I wouldn't make this step 1, though. It's not enough just to have a crisp clean line. You need to know where to put the lines so that the lines make the shapes look solid and convincing. That's where learning construction comes in. Doing all these lessons together makes everything make more sense and makes your drawings get better and more convincing.

7 Get A Job Cleaning Up Someone With ExperienceIf Mitch keeps going this way, I'll send him some cleanup or inking work and he will learn even more, but he is taking all the smart steps towards getting skills and knowledge of functional cartooning.

Hey Mitch, I have a couple suggestions or critiques for you. If you are man enough to have me do it in a post, let me know.

17 comments:

i have a/some question/s for john to maybe touch on in the future some time: in the subject of inking..

as a connoisseur of cartooning, what do you think about computer assisted inking? i used to see stuff that was computer inked and say, "Holy crap" how did someone make such perfect lines.. and now i know it was probably with the help of a computer... at top levels of inking is a good hand-done ink superior? are computer inks too perfect and look like advertising art? or is this just a stupid question? does practice with a brush translate later to skill in computer inking?

any inking tips or advice would be greatly appreciated(maybe i missed an old post where you discussed it?)

Hi John - just found your blog, great stuff :) Thanks for posting all of this wonderful info.

I'm sure you've heard this a million times but let me make it a million and one by saying just how much I love R&S and the Ripping Friends.

Question: there was a R&S super nintendo video game in the 90s (ren & stimpy time warp). Am I correct in thinking you did the art for that? I've seen it in person and its just beautiful. I don't suppose you sell any of your original art?

this has been really really great, and i wish i wasn't in the midst of moving/getting hitched so i could participate more. hopefully tomorrow i can dedicate some time for character studies. i updated my "blog" with a sheet of sketches, no time for anything else.

awesome stuff too Mitch. nice to see hard work pays off at some point.